User blog:Meta07/The pixie that has just evolved.
So, some of you may've known that I call my trusty PC "Yukipishi" or "Snow Pixie", who is like a little sis to me. Thus, today, I present you... Yukipishi Samukaze (Snow Pixie - Cold Breeze) That's right, I just upgraded her 4 days ago. I had to spend all my savings, as well as putting her old parts AND "all the money I can ever get until I graduate" on the table in order to persuade mom to fund her though, so no allowance or prize money for 2 years. But I'm happy with that, though. After all, she's a major part of my life. Of course, my brother-in-law (who was like a real brother to me) helped me refine the final parts list as well as assembling the whole system at home. We didn't get to directly assemble her, the computers supermarket did it for us when we ordered the parts, though we did watch the technician do it directly. The assembling process was long and tedious, taking more than 40 minutes to complete for who seems like the best one in the team. She was the best and most classy PC in the assembling room at the time, so I was really proud, I felt like a princess. So, let's get to her components. Oh, and btw, she's a female (media) PC mainly used for watching videos, listening to music, and editing videos/photos/subtitles, and many parts are not available at my place. Anyway, here goes: Insides 'CPU: Intel Core i5-4690' The CPU was one of my main reasons for upgrading, since my old CPU (an i3 2100) took too long to render some of the effects and videos I made, and it couldn't handle some VFX well. Plus, an i5 is needed to get the most out of PowerDVD (or so CyberLink says, at least). Since I'm going for a media build, I thought that an Intel CPU will be better than an AMD one overall, so I went with the i5 4690. 'Motherboard: Gigabyte H97-D3H' A new motherboard was needed to hold the aforementioned CPU. Out of all the decent boards available for me, the H97-D3H was one of the cheapest yet best Full ATX mobo, and it has the new H97 chipset. The other mobos with new chipsets were too expensive for my budget. 'Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X DDR3 1x8GB (1600 MHz)' My old memory set was a mismatched duo of a 4GB 1333 MHz Team Group stick and a 2GB 1333 MHz Kingmax stick. While that itself is... let's say not so bad, I thought I should go for a little bit more RAM (by which I mean 8 GB), 1600 MHz bus since the H97-D3H mobo supports it, and just one single stick for stability or a matching set, and the Ripjaws X 1x8 GB DDR3-1600 met all of the above. My aforementioned brother-in-law went a bit extra naughty and plugged the old 4GB stick in too so temporarily I have 12 GB of RAM, but I don't plan to keep that stick but give it to him as a gift for helping me instead. 'Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB HDD' I reused my old 2TB WD Caviar Black HDD (I went a bit overkill with storage with my old PC XP), since I don't see any reason to upgrade something that good, and I don't have money for a SSD. 'Video Card: Asus AMD Radeon HD 6670 1GB' I reused the Radeon HD 6670 1 GB from my old PC. Since she has no SSD and a really underpowered GPU, as you can see, she doesn't do well on benchmark tests at all. However, the card still satisfies all my needs and to be honest it actually worked better than expected from when I had just bought it until now. Like I said, I don't game much, so I didn't upgrade it, plus a decent GPU costs too much. 'Sound Card: Asus Xonar DGX' The ASUS Xonar and ROG cards are pretty much the only cards available for me, and I went with the Xonar DGX since it's got stellar reviews, is drastically cheaper than the next cheapest card, and still has 5.1 channels while I only need 4.1 channels at most. I know "music is not its forte, gaming is" and I usually listen to music rather than gaming but in my situation, it should be better at both worlds than any other card I can afford. 'Case: Thor Aresa' I bought a Thor Aresa case. Now, I know this just sounds like a made-in-China no-name case to you, but here in Vietnam, it's extremely favored for its price range, and it still has everything I would ever need. Spacy, Full ATX support, 2 stock fans with some other fan mounts, a blue theme, some basic fan controlling buttons, and even a HDD Dock. Also, another thing I like about this case is that it can give her "pixie wings" . o_o I know I named her "Snow Pixie" but I'd never expect that! O.o Oh, and it has a cute name. 'Power Supply: FSP Group Hexa 700W' I reused the FSP Hexa 700W from my old PC (went overkill with power supply for it since I bought it with upgrading in mind because it was the last non-peripheral part I bought for that old PC). It was really cheap for its wattage and is stable enough. 'Cooling: 2 stock 120mm fans + 2 Cooler Master SickleFlow 120mm Blue LED fans' As I said, my case has 2 stock 12cm fans. How powerful they exactly are is anybody's guess but they seem to run fine. I also bought 2 Cooler Master SickleFlow 120mm Blue LED fans since my case doesn't support 20cm fans, and it's one of the only 2 decent 12 case fans available for me here,... and the other one went out of stock when I went to the store. I was really happy with it afterwards though. Since the air here is very hot and dusty, I ended up making 3 fans exhausts and only 1 fan intake even though I initially planned otherwise. >_> Peripherals 'Monitor: Asus VX 238H 23" monitor' The monitor was another main reason for upgrading, since my old monitor didn't even support Full HD, and for a video watcher that's just unacceptable. I went with the VX 238H since it's got stellar reviews, is affordable, gave vibrant colors at the store (and even now, of course), supports Full HD and the 1ms refresh rate was really impressive even though I doubt if I'll really need that lol. Anyway, you may notice that the plastic cover is still there, with the "Energy Rating" sticker and all. That's because the store I bought my parts from has got a 5-day returning policy, where you can return or exchange any part for five days after purchase as long as I keep everything intact including that plastic cover, and the one I originally purchased was bad and I had to change it instantly the next morning so... It's annoying, but better be safe than sorry, I guess. (If you haven't noticed the date, I've only got the monitor along with Yukipishi as a whole for 4 days, btw). 'Speakers: Soundmax A-5000 4.1 channels speakers' I reused the Soundmax A-5000 4.1 channels speakers from my old PC, except this time I plugged it into the new sound card. It was a pretty cheap local product, but a legendary one, even the store clerk got impressed by it when I bought it, and my brother-in-law (who uses the same model at his home) kept recommending it over and over. 'Headphones: Logitech H390' I reused the Logitech H390 (also known as ClearChat Comfort). It was affordable yet produced really good sounds (IMO at least, of course I don't know how the Sennheiser HD 800 or something sounds), recorded my voice clearly, and is incredibly tough (dropped it like 100 times, accidentally violently pulled its wire off many times, and even rolled over it with my wheeled chair once and it's still completely intact with no audio quality decrease whatsoever. Can't say it still looks perfect though, as you can see. :/). It's a shame it can't be plugged into the new sound card yet though, not sure if I can do that if I buy a USB-to-3.5mm cable. 'Network: D-Link DWA-125' Reused the D-Link adapter received from dad. Nothing much to say here, except that the internet somehow got magically faster (albeit not by much) and more stable after I plug it directly in the new case's top USB port instead of a stand-alone USB port. O.o 'Mouse: Elecom EX-G M-XG1BBSV BlueLED Mouse' I got this mouse in Akihabara with a heavily discounted price of 1600 something en, but its design is really comfortable for me (more than some of the more expensive gaming mouses I tried at the computer supermarket where I bought Yukipishi), it's responsive, and it has the back and forward button which I despised at first but found to be very useful afterwards, and no other fancy gaming buttons to take up space and increase its price while decreasing its comfort. 'Keyboard: Sanwa... something' Received from dad, nothing much to say here. I don't even know what its model is, but at least it's really comfortable for me even though I'm sure it's dirt-cheap. Some more pictures Update: Yukipishi Samukaze Final So, with the purchase of the Sennheiser HD238 last Tuesday (October 28th, 2014), I've finally completed my Yukipishi-chan's Samukaze, with all things needed bought and fit with the new build. The only thing I haven't got is a webcam, but I won't need that. So, here are the new parts which I bought to complete the built: 'Keyboard: Logitech K270' Really great product for its cheap price. Comfortable, tactile keys, spoil-resistant, excellent wireless signal, beautiful look (for me), nice paint, $20. It drastically improved my WPM. It also has some really useful media buttons which I use regularly, except for maybe the homepage button, but even that one I do use sometimes. Also, can now play Frets on Fire comfortably since it's a wireless keyboard (felt kinda weird when it said "You play like a little girl" in the tutorial, lol, since I AM a physically little girl... ._. Anyway, its only flaw is that it can't register so many buttons at once, making it useless for O2Mania. 'Gamepad: Logitech F710' Oh, how I love Logitech when it comes to peripherals! This is another great product, with a really premium feel. Gorgeous build and buttons, nice padding, good wireless signal, responsive, buttons feel tactile and natural when pressing, impacting vibration. In short, it's very nice-looking (manages to not look too aggressive for a premium gamepad, keeping Yukipishi-chan's feminine looks), works very well and is very comfortable overall. Needs to calibrate a bit before using sometimes though. Also, it's a bit big for my hands, but still fit well nonetheless. 'Mousepad: Sharkoon Drakonia' Well, I admit I mainly picked this for the looks, since it's the most blue-looking in the price range, and it doesn't look too aggressive. Still, it's a gaming pad, so it may just be the most masculine-looking part of Yukipishi there. It's still a really good mouse pad though, very durable, smooth, and large, and did help using the mouse feel more comfortable. Anyway, here comes the most important of all... 'Headphones: Sennheiser HD 238' My first impressions on this was a quite un-ladylike expression: "HOLY SH*T!!!" First, it's TINY! Like, from the pictures on the net I've already expected it to be small, but when I actually bought it... HOLY S... It was like twice slimmer than my old H390! Maybe more! And that's not because it's cheap. Wanna see a "male" (gaming) headset in its price range? Was that a bit unfair? How about another female pair of headphones in that range then? Second, it's a cloud. Me and my cousin unboxed it together and both took turns to wear it, and we both noted how we nearly felt like not wearing any headphones at all when wearing it. That's enough to speak for its comfort. Really, combined with its small yet classy and beautiful (again for me) form, it may just be the most feminine part of the PC girl Yukipishi-chan. I've never seen any electrical device with such a "soft lady"/"weak girl" feel. Third, and most importantly, it sounds a. Ma. Zing! Like, it gave me an idea how Hi-Fi headphones may sound like, and it makes me feel like I'm in front of a stage every time I listen to music. Combined with my sound card, which I can now use with this pair since it has a 3.5mm jack, I could hear that someone was actually plucking the guitar's string or gliding its fretboard, and sometimes I can even pinpoint the location of that guitar, for example. And when I was watching Hyouka, I heard some doorbells ringing, so I turned my head around to check, just to remember that my door's bell didn't sound like that a little while later. Granted, those were the results when used with the sound card, but it sounds great in other sources, too! It even sounds lively on a PSVita! (Though not on par with when it's on Yukipishi-chan, of course.) Oh, and that's from an imperfect pair, not fully burned in, and not modded at all. Also, I always thought it looked really cute on someone's head. ^^ But sadly, hardly anyone wants a tiny, girly-looking pair, even the girls! >< It's all because of those overpriced "cool guys" Beats Solo HDs which this soft lady can actually easily blow out of the water despite being 3 times cheaper... Oh, speaking of which, I managed to get it for a cheaper price than other stores, too. By the way, since I'm pretty excited about headphones right now... Nendoroids Corner 2.0 (Because why not?) Update 2: Yukipishi Samukaze Studio Did I say that Yukipishi was perfect? Actually, I take that back. Her speakers and graphics card were still old, and she didn't have a CPU cooler. Well, not anymore! ...Except for the graphics card, at least. For this Lunar New Year, I did a great upgrade and her and brought in 2 more parts! 'Graphics Tablet: Wacom CTH-480 Intuos Pen & Touch Small' Well, you should've known that I've gotten this beforehand but put it here anyway because it wasn't in this blog. Won't comment further on this... 'CPU Cooler: Hyper 212X' The new version of the legendary mid-range CPU cooler Hyper 212 EVO. Since it's a cooler, I can't say much, but it decreased Yukipishi-chan's temp in load from 65 degrees C all the way down to 49 degrees C! And yes, I live in a very hot place. 'Microphone: Takstar TA-54D' Well, it's a microphone, it works. Sorry, I don't know what to say since I really don't know how to evaluate microphones. I got this one because cheaper PC microphones from more famous brands such as Blue or Samson weren't available, and because this one seemed cheap at the store I got it from compared to other places. 'Speakers: Edifier HCS2330B' So, my plan was to get a speakers set with comparable sound quality to the HD238 so I can have proper "public" or "private" listening modes, and compared to my old speakers, these are phenomenal! Clear, virtually distorted, tight and satisfying bass without going all BOOM BOOM, very bright and warm when it needs to and fits with nearly every music genre out there. It's also quite easy to setup and control, having an external amplifier box and remote controller so I can control it while listening on my bed if I want to. The HD238 is still a great private listening device (and in terms of clarity and space imaging it may still be better!), but when I don't need to hide my audio I always use this now. Also, in my opinion, this set, while simple, also looks quite classy. Granted, it's much more expensive than my old speakers or even the HD238 (still, speakers should be more expensive than headphones, right?), but still... Thus, with this New Year upgrade, my dear Yukipishi only needs one final part left to become perfect... April coming! Benchmark Test Results Like I said, since she has no SSD and an underpowered GPU, she didn't do well on benchmark tests. However, it can't stop me from posting her results! '3DMark 11 Results' *'Entry:' 3294 **Graphics: 3071 **Physics: 6677 **Combined: 2190 *'Performance:' 2132 **Graphics: 1909 **Physics: 6837 **Combined: 1849 *'Extreme:' 614 **Graphics: 545 **Physics: 7344 **Combined: 688 '3DMark Results' *'Ice Storm Extreme' (Ice/Water test - Entry test): 95427 **Graphics: 113941 **Physics: 60836 *'Cloud Gate' (Elec test - Lower-mid-range test): 9126 **Graphics: 11446 **Physics: 5339 *'Sky Diver' (Earth test - Mid-range test): 4488 **Graphics: 4155 **Physics: 7785 **Combined: 4347 *'Fire Strike' (Fire test - Hi-end test) (see? Fire can be the best of the 4 elements!): 1269 **Graphics: 1301 **Physics: 7424 **Combined: 524 'PCMark 7 Results' *'PCMark Score:' 3513 *'Lightweight Score:' 2889 *'Productivity Score:' 2930 *'Entertainment Score:' 3701 *'Creativity Score:' 3676 *'Computation Score:' 4371 *'System Storage Score:' 2180 *'Raw System Storage Score:' 595 'PerformanceTest 8 Results' Koufuku Metanana 03:52, August 9, 2014 (UTC) Category:Blog posts Category:Personal